Bruce Wayne
Bruce Wayne '''was the main protagonist of ''The Dark Knight Trilogy, ''described as a billionaire socialite who witnessed his parent's murder at age 8, and later traveled the world for seven years to seek the means to fight injustice, fear and chaos before returning to Gotham City to become '''Batman, a bat-masked vigilante hailed as the city's "Dark Knight", who dedicated himself to protecting it from its criminal underworld at night as a means to uphold justice, hope and order. Biography Origin and Early Life Born in October 1976 in Gotham City to Thomas Wayne, a billionaire socialite employed as a doctor, and Martha Kane-Wayne, an Irish-Catholic debutante, Bruce Wayne grew up home-schooled on his parents' Wayne Manor estate (since there was no public school anywhere near the estate) apart from them and their trusted butler Alfred Pennyworth. Although the only child in the house, his loneliness eventually changed during his fourth birthday, when his parents brought in other children for him to befriend, but most spent his party running around and yelling. This left Bruce in a best friendship with the only well-behaved child among them, Rachel Dawes, who was the daughter of the mansion's housekeeper and lived in housing unit nearby. Despite having play dates with the other kid over the next three years, he secretly wished to stay away from some except Rachel, who was the friend he saw the most. One day at age 8, while playing with her in the garden greenhouse, Bruce fell down a dry well and into a cave, where he was attacked by a swarm of bats. His father rescued him, though Bruce developed a crippling fear of bats; the senior Wayne comforted his son by telling him that though people fall, they always have the strength to get up. Later, Bruce accompanied his parents into the city to see a new monorail system they built that just opened up for the public. Throughout the ride, his parents explained that Gotham was suffering from an economic downturn and enduring deeper into very hard times. To help it's citizens, his father nearly bankrupted his company, Wayne Enterprises, to build the monorails to unite the city, with Wayne Tower as the system central core, but it didn't seem enough. While watching a performance of Mefistofele ''at the Gotham Opera House nearby with both his parents, Bruce got frightened by a scene featuring a bat-like monster (which reminded him of the bats that attacked him in the well) and asked to leave. Once outside, the family was confronted by a mugger named Joe Chill, who shot both of Bruce's parents for dead for causing the depression to drive him out of his job and fled just as police patrol showed up to shelter the now orphaned boy. Thomas' last words to his son were to not be afraid. At the police station, one of the patrolmen, Sgt. Jim Gordon, did his best to comfort Bruce with a coat while Police Lt. Gillian Loeb was able to capture Chill. Taken back home to watch as his parents' bodies were buried outside, a distraught Bruce was left cared for by Alfred, who arranged that he won't be taken into social service care. He blamed himself for his parents' murder: if had he not been frightened, the Waynes would not have encountered Chill, though Alfred assured him it was no one's fault but Chill's. At age 12, Bruce's home-school days ended when he inherited enough money from his ancestors to give himself a first-class education and attend Mark Twain High School in Ossaville, a town closer to Gotham. When the principle told Alfred that there was nothing more the school staff could give the boy, Bruce was scheduled to do his schoolwork with a series of tutors. His favorite subject was drama since he loved to read plays, and asked Alfred a lot of questions about drama when he learned that the butler was a child actor while growing up in England. At age 14, Bruce became interested in sports when he learned of a teen soccer league that just formed in the neighborhood. Although not enrolled in any of the public schools, he was somehow able to join one of the teams, but quit after his second practice since he probably wasn't the locker room type. But Bruce still had an interest in other sports, and at age 16, he asked Alfred if they could try skiing. Having learned of a ski resort in Vermont, the old butler phoned for reservations at a nearby lodge for their trip. Driving there, however, became hazardous when he and Bruce were caught in the middle of a blizzard, so they didn't check into the lodge until ten, when the resort was already closed and scheduled to be reopened at around six in the morning. While Alfred relaxed at the lounge, Bruce decided to ski alone and snuck out of their room before hiking to the resort in his skiing equipment. But right when he started sliding out of control down the mountain, a night watchman caught him in the act and called the rescue patrol, who found Bruce unconscious at the bottom of a shallow gorge with a bloody gash across his forehead, one of his skis lying in two pieces nearby and the other canting his leg in an unnatural angle. He was taken back to the lodge with a cast for his leg and bandage on his forehead, and rested in bed until Alfred came to check on him. Because Bruce had broken leg and slight concussion, a doctor who Alfred conferred with concluded that if the butler wanted to take the boy back to Gotham, he would need proper transportation. So, Alfred purchased twin-rotor Sikorsky helicopter to return home with the bandaged Bruce, setting it down on a field next to Wayne Manor. That following week, the bandages came off, and the Wayne family physician pronounced the young Wayne intact again. Bruce never thought of going skiing ever since, but his eventually shifted other athletics. He ordered a complete set of Olympic-grade gymnastics gear and spent mos of the summer with an instructor learning how to use them. He swam in the Olympic-size pool dug behind the garden before breakfast and lifted weights for several months, but was never able to do archery or mediocre skating. Rachel sometimes joined him at the manor to swim, jump on the trampoline or hang out. Bruce enjoyed the visits until he left the city at age 17 to attend Princeton University, where he studied Jungian archetypes and mono-myths. But he considered such topics absolutely nonessential to any conceivable life he wanted to lead, if it wasn't plain foolish. During class break one fatal morning, Bruce waited under a clock tower at the campus center for a cute girl from his advanced calculus class, who promised to meet him there so he could lend her his notes in exchange for buying him coffee. She never showed, and Bruce found his mind returning to the class he just finished, mainly on the story of Siddhartha that was told. Following his graduation and a car race that he he won in Missouri, he returned to Gotham to learn that Chill's prison sentence was being suspended in exchange for his testimony against local mobster Carmine Falcone. Intent on ensuring Chill didn't become reminder of disgrace under the eyes of the Wayne empire for what he did to his parents, Bruce obtained waited outside the courtroom of Gotham District Courthouse with a gun under his sleeve to shoot and kill him with, but an assassin of Falcone's posing as a reporter did so first. Rachel, who was now the city's assistant District Attorney, drove him to an alleyway Falcone's restaurant to show him that things have grown much worse since the depression when Falcone rose to power from the criminal underworld flooding the city with organized crime, and Chill would have been the justice system's ace in the hole against him. Bruce dismissed that idea by telling her about his foiled plan, and she expressed disgust for his attempt to carry out blind vengeance without regard for justice, telling him that his father would be ashamed. Realizing she was right, he confronted Falcone, who told him that he was ignorant of the nature of crime and he would never be able to face up against criminals as he didn't understand their world. Hoping to prove him wrong, Bruce got on a ship at the docks intending to travel the world in order to gain understanding of the criminal mind and seek the means of fighting injustice, becoming part of the criminal underworld as a result. Spending the first eighteen months as part of the ship's crew, he slept on rags at a corner of the engine room, ate what was left of everyone else's food and did work on deck by lifting heavy crate, pulling at cables, scraping paint of the hull and cleaning gunk from the bilges. Many of his much bigger and powerful crew mates, most notably the ship's bosun Hector, often tormented Bruce out of his witts, with each attack serving as a lesson. By the time the ship docked in Monrovia, Bruce wandered the filthy marketplace and stopped by a fruit vendor, stealing a plum from the basket and escaping down alleyway to give it to a poor boy to finish. Shortly later, he got himself by a tramp steamer, and in the following months journeyed through a lot of Africa and some of Asia until settling down in North Korea. There, he accepted training in Kuk Sool Won under a master was about to retire in the Pujanryang Mountains before departing to South Korea, joining a gang of smugglers running flights into Pyongyang below radar and promising to some day hire them as a flight crew. While working as a courier and engineer for an Asian freighter, Bruce was sent to Hong Kong on a dinghy to pick up a package from a Chinese national and return it to the ship, which was docked two miles offshore. He waited until dawn at a small fisherman's pier that he tied his dinghy, but the package man never arrived and the freighter was gone. Luckily, Bruce was able to leave Hong Kong by sneaking into the engine room of a luxury liner and stowing away until it docked in Sydney. While there, he met with a young American named Zachary Dabb and helped him do charity work with the Aborigines, teaching the traveling billionaire a lesson on not to count on preparations in receiving gifts. Leaving that following week on a ship that dropped him off in Marrakesh, Bruce slept under a bridge for a couple night and signed onto a tanker bound for Great Britain. Upon arrival, he hung around London long enough to learn how to steal cars from the ship's cook, then shipped out on another freighter and found himself in Shanghai. One of the deckhands, nicknamed Stocky, had a way to make quick and easy money, which an interested Bruce saw as an opportunity to understand the kind of human deprived from the cherished. He was eventually arrested in Bhutan for theft (ironically of Wayne Enterprises cargo), and sent to a Bhutanese prison for seven years, where he brawled with the inmates. Batman Begins On his last day in the prison, a man named Henri Ducard visited Bruce and invited him to join an elite vigilante group, the League of Shadows, led by Ra's al Ghul. Bruce was freed and traveled up a mountain to the League's headquarters to begin his training, first stumbling upon a rare blue flower growing near the temple that Ducard told him to pick up along the way. Throughout the time being, Bruce was taught the will to act against corruption and mind his surroundings, which Ducard explained made the death of his parents his father's fault, overcoming his childhood fear of bats in the process. But when he was ordered to execute a criminal as his initiation, Bruce learned that the League were intending to use him to commit urbicide on Gotham, believing it has reach the point of its decadent corruption and that its destruction was was necessary to restore the world to balance. In response, he refused their cause and escaped by lighting the League's temple on fire, killing Ra's in the process. Bruce rescued an unconscious Ducard from the wreckage and left him to recover at a village. Bruce returns to a Gotham City ruled by Falcone, and plots his war against the city's corrupt system. He seeks the help of Rachel and Gordon, who consoled him after his parents' murder. After reestablishing his connections to Wayne Enterprises (now run by William Earle) Bruce acquires, with the help of former board member Lucius Fox, a prototype armored car and an experimental armored suit. In his first night, he disrupts a drug shipment, and leaves Falcone tied to a searchlight, forming a makeshift Bat-Signal. He also disrupts an assassination attempt on Rachel, leaving her with evidence against a judge on Falcone's payroll. While investigating the drugs in the shipment, Batman is stunned by Dr. Jonathan Crane, an Arkham Asylum psychiatrist on Falcone's payroll, who sprays him with a powerful hallucinogen. Alfred rescues him, using an anti-toxin developed by Fox to save him. Crane later poisons Rachel after showing her that the toxin, which is lethal in vapor form, is being piped into the city water supply. Batman saves her and attacks Crane with his own poison. When the police arrive at Arkham to arrest Crane, Batman escapes with Rachel in the Batmobile. After administering the antidote to her in the Batcave, he gives her two vials of it for Gordon – one for inoculating himself and the other for mass-production. Later, in Wayne Manor, Bruce is confronted at his birthday celebration by a group of League of Shadows ninjas led by Ducard, who reveals himself to be the real Ra's al Ghul, and that the man killed earlier was a decoy. Ra's, who had been conspiring with Crane the entire time, plans to destroy Gotham by distributing the toxin via the city's water supply, and vaporizing it with a microwave-emitter stolen from Wayne Enterprises. Bruce dismisses his guests by insulting them while pretending to be drunk, and fights briefly with Ra's while the League set fire to the Manor. At the last minute, Bruce escapes the inferno with Alfred's help. Batman arrives at the Narrows section of Gotham to aid the police in battling psychotic criminals, including Crane, now calling himself "Scarecrow", whom the League set free. Rachel is briefly confronted by Crane, but quickly wards him off with a taser before being chased by more inmates. After saving her, Batman reveals his identity to her, and leaves Gordon in control of the Batmobile to stop the elevated train used to transport the weapon to the city's central water-hub. Batman battles Ra's aboard the train, then escapes just as Gordon topples the elevated line using the Batmobile's autocannons, leaving Ra's to crash to the ground and perish in the explosion. Following the battle, Batman becomes a public hero. Bruce gains control of Wayne Enterprises and installs Fox as the new CEO, firing Earle. However, he is unable to hold onto Rachel, who cannot reconcile her love for Bruce with his dual life as Batman. Newly-promoted Lieutenant Gordon unveils a Bat-Signal for Batman. Gordon mentions that they will have their hands full finding all of the psychopaths released from Arkham by Ra's, and in particular notes a criminal who also has "a taste for the theatrical" and leaves Joker playing cards at all of his crime scenes. Batman promises to investigate it. As Batman is leaving, Gordon mentions that he has not thanked Batman for what he has done. Batman replies that Gordon will never have to, and flies off into the night. The Dark Knight In Gotham City, the Joker robs a mob-owned bank with his accomplices, whom he tricks into killing each other. That night, Batman interrupts a meeting between the Chechen and the Scarecrow, but suffers wounds from the Chechen's dogs, allowing the Chechen to escape and prompting Batman to redesign his batsuit. Batman and Lieutenant James Gordon contemplate including new district attorney Harvey Dent in their plan to eradicate the mob, as he could be the public hero Batman cannot be. However, Batman wonders if Dent can be trusted. Bruce runs into Rachel Dawes and Dent, who are dating, and after talking to Dent, he realizes he is sincere and decides to host a fundraiser for him. Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol and the Chechen meet with other underworld gangsters to discuss both Batman and Dent. Lau, a Chinese mafia accountant, informs them that he has hidden their money and fled to Hong Kong in an attempt to pre-empt Gordon's plan to seize the mobsters' funds. The Joker arrives unexpectedly, offering to kill Batman in return for half of the mob's money, an offer the mobsters refuse. In Hong Kong, Batman captures Lau and delivers him to the Gotham City police, where Lau agrees to testify against the mob. In retaliation, the mobsters hire the Joker to kill Batman and Lau. The Joker issues an ultimatum to Gotham, stating that if Batman does not reveal his identity to the public, people will die each day. When Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb, Judge Janet Surillo, who was presiding over the mob trials, and Gordon are murdered, the public's increasing pressure prompts Wayne to decide to reveal his identity. Before he can, Dent announces at a press conference that he himself is Batman and is arrested as part of a plan to draw the Joker out of hiding. The Joker attempts to ambush the police convoy carrying Dent, but Batman and Gordon, the latter whom had faked his death, intervene and capture him. In recognition of his actions, Gordon is appointed police commissioner. Later that night, Dent and Rachel disappear. At the police station, Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that their police escorts were on Maroni's payroll, and have placed them in warehouses rigged with explosives on opposite sides of the city — far enough apart so that Batman cannot save them both. Batman leaves to save Rachel, while Gordon and the police head after Dent. With the aid of a smuggled bomb, the Joker escapes police custody with Lau. Batman arrives to save Rachel but instead finds Dent. Batman successfully saves Dent, but the ensuing explosion disfigures Dent's face. Gordon arrives at Rachel's location too late, and she is killed when the bomb detonates. In the hospital, Dent's grief drives him to madness. Aboard a cargo ship, the Joker burns Lau to death atop a pile of the mob's money and has the Chechen killed, before taking control of his men. The Joker goes to the hospital and convinces Dent to exact revenge on the corrupt cops and mobsters responsible for Rachel's death, as well as Batman and Gordon. The Joker frees Dent—who allows the Joker to live after flipping his coin—then blows up the hospital and hijacks a bus filled with patients. Out of the hospital, Dent goes on a personal vendetta confronting Maroni and the corrupt cops one by one, also deciding their fates with the flip of a coin. The Joker announces to the public that anyone left in Gotham at nightfall will be subject to his rule. With the bridges and tunnels out of the city closed due to a bomb threat by the Joker, authorities begin evacuating people by ferry. The Joker places explosives on two of the ferries—one ferry with convicts, who were evacuated in an effort to keep the Joker from freeing them, and the other with civilians—telling the passengers the only way to save themselves is to trigger the explosives on the other ferry; otherwise, he will destroy both at midnight. Meanwhile, Batman locates the Joker and the hostages he has taken. Realizing the Joker has disguised the hostages as his own men, Batman is forced to attack both Gordon's SWAT team and the Joker's henchmen in order to save the real hostages. Meanwhile, the Joker's plan to destroy the ferries fails after the passengers on both decide not to destroy each other. Batman locates and subdues the Joker, preventing him from destroying both ferries, but refuses to kill him. The Joker acknowledges that Batman is truly incorruptible, but that Dent was not, and that he has unleashed Dent upon the city. Leaving the Joker for the SWAT team, Batman leaves in search of Dent. At the remains of the building where Rachel died, Batman finds Dent holding Gordon and his family at gunpoint. Dent judges the innocence of Batman, himself, and Gordon's son through three coin tosses. Because of the first two flips, he shoots Batman in the abdomen and spares himself. Before Dent can determine the boy's fate, Batman, who was wearing body armor, tackles him over the side of the building. Gordon's son is saved, but Batman and Dent fall, and Dent is killed. Batman and Gordon realize that the morale of the city would suffer if Dent's murders became known. Batman persuades Gordon to preserve Dent's image by holding "Batman" responsible for the murders. Gordon destroys the Bat-Signal, and a manhunt for Batman begins. The Dark Knight Rises 8 years after the manhunt for Batman, the city is at peace. Organized Crime has disappeared, and Bruce Wayne has retired from his job as Batman, and has become a recluse. In a party at Wayne Manor celebrating the Dent Act and the clean city, he watches from his roof. Later, he meets a maid, Selina Kyle whom steals his mother's pearls, steals his fingerprints, and kidnaps Congressmen Byron Gilly. She later gives them to Phillip Stryver, an assistant to Bruce's business rival John Daggett. Bruce searches for Selina on his supercomputer in the Batcave -- which had been rebuilt -- and discuses with Alfred about his current conditoin and the way he's been living. John Blake, an orphan cop stops by and tells Bruce he knows who he was. He also tells him that some " details " might need help. He gets his leg checked, goes to a party where Selina is, and takes the pearls back, only to lose his car. At the same time, Miranda Tate urges him to restart the nuclear reactor project, which he shut down because he learned it could become a weapon. Later, Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange and bankrupts Wayne Enterprises and Wayne. In response to this, Bruce puts back on the cape and cowl, and Batman returns to Gotham City, although being chased by the entire police force and barely escaping with Lucius Fox's new invention, a winged vehicle he calls " The Bat" . At this point, Alfred, concerned for Bruce, reveals he burned the letter Rachel gave him , which said that she would marry Harvey Dent, and not be with him. The result is Alfred resigning, doing so dissuade him. Bruce, concerned that Daggett would take over Wayne Enterprises, and thus the reactor, asks Miranda Tate to take over. Bruce promises the software Kyle needs to erase her criminal record, and later, Batman agrees to give it to her if she takes him to Bane, only to be betrayed. Bane and Batman fight, only for Bane to break Batman's back, and puts him in a foreign and ancient prison, where Bane reveals his intentions to destroy Gotham with the League of Shadows. As Gotham burns, the inmates reveal the story of how Ra's al Ghul's child, whom was born in the prison, escaped. Bruce assumes the child is Bane. A few months later, he recovers and trains, before escaping and returning to Gotham. He gets help from all his allies (except Alfred) to stop the bomb from detonating. As Batman, he frees the cops, before they clash with Bane's forces. Batman and Bane duel once more, but Tate stabs him in an act of betrayal. She reveals herself to be Talia al Ghul, and thus the child who escaped the Pit. She reveals her plans to finish her father's work and attempts to destroy Gotham, but Gordon blocks the signal and Talia goes to find the bomb. Kyle kills Bane, and the two of them track Talia. They knock her truck down, and make it crash, but she remotely destroys the reactor. With both villians dead, Batman takes the Bomb over the bay, where it explodes. Batman and Bruce Wayne are presumed dead, but the former is honored as a hero in the eyes of Gotham City. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, Fox learns Bruce fixed the Bat's Autopilot, and Gordon sees the Bat-Signal fixed. Alfred goes to Florence, to see Bruce is okay, and with Selina, proving that Rachel was wrong, and that he has finally moved on from Gotham and Batman once and for all. Abilities Batman is a highly skilled martial artist having been trained by the League of Shadows and Ra's al Ghul personally in ninjutsu and other martial arts, Batman has achieved such feats as single handedly subduing a swat team and taking out a group of the league of shadows ninjas with minimal injury; even before his training with Ra's al Ghul. Bruce Wayne was able to fight an entire gang of convicts in a prison brawl with the guards locking him in solitary for the other inmates "protection". Batman is also highly intelligent, being a brilliant detective (known by some as "the world's greatest detective"), and an expert planner. He has proven himself exceptionally good at stealth being able to disappear in the middle of people's sentences and sneaking up on others unexpectedly. With his vast wealth and company Batman has access to some of the world's greatest equipment and technology to improve his performance. Relying on intellect, detective skills, science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime, Batman is a force greatly feared by Gotham's underworld. Personality Bruce Wayne is very dedicated and determined to his work of crime-fighting, sometimes employing illegal and morally dubious tactics (like torture) but ultimately for the good of Gotham. Despite his dark past and serious work, Bruce has displayed a sense of humor around his butler Alfred and a romantic side around his love-interest Rachel. Although possessing great hate and anger towards criminals, he has proven himself a very caring and selfless person, constantly putting his life on the line to save innocent lives and bringing the most dangerous criminals to justice for society's protection. Perhaps Bruce's strongest characteristic is his strong moral code to never kill, believing all men deserve a trial and to do so makes him no better than his enemies, because of this he was been noted by the Joker as being "incorruptible". Although he did let Ra's al Ghul die, saying "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you", he has shown compassion for his enemies, such as when he saved his employee Mr. Reese from getting killed, who was just about to sell him out by telling the public he was Batman. Bruce Wayne has also shown himself to have a good deal of faith in people as evidenced in ''The Dark Knight when he was confident that the people on the ferries wouldn't blow each other up (which they didn't), which is contrast to the Joker believing people to be just as bad as him when under enough pressure. To the public, Bruce Wayne takes on the facade of a irresponsible, fun-seeking playboy in order to avoid suspicion of his alter-ego, while as Batman he reveals his dark, intimidating personality in the form of a bat (his childhood fear for his enemies to dread) to frighten the criminals he stands against, believing theatricality to help him seem more than a man, but a symbol. Bruce Wayne's ultimate goal is to bring order and justice to Gotham city, as opposed to the Joker who's ultimate goal is to bring chaos and anarchy. Relationships *Batman - Hero identity. *Thomas Wayne - Father. *Martha Wayne - Mother. *Alfred Pennyworth - Butler and Guardian. *Rachel Dawes - Childhood Best Friend and First Love Interest. *Jim Gordon - Friend and Ally. *Lucius Fox - Employee, friend, and technical support. *Robin John Blake - Ally and Successor. *Selina Kyle/Catwoman - Third Love Interest and Enemy turned Ally. *Ra's al Ghul/Henri Ducard - Teacher and Enemy. *Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow - Enemy. *The Joker - Enemy. *Harvey Dent/Two-Face - Friend turned Enemy. *Bane - Enemy. *Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul - Second Love Interest and Employee turned Enemy. Bases of Operation Batcave The Batcave was Batman's base of operations. It was a cave beneath Wayne Manor. Wayne Manor Wayne Manor was Bruce's ancestral home. It was destroyed by Ra's al Ghul at the end of Batman Begins, ''but it was later rebuilt before the events of ''The Dark Knight Rises. Penthouse When Wayne Manor was destroyed, Bruce moved into a penthouse. This was where the Joker first searched for Harvey Dent and, according to Alfred, where Bruce doesn't sleep in much. Warehouse After Wayne Manor was destroyed, the Batcave cannot be used so Batman moves his operations to the Warehouse. Weapons and Equipment Batsuit: Batman wears a bat-masked "Nomex survival suit" derived from Lucius Fox's Research and Development program within Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences Division to conceal his identity and to frighten criminals. This particular incarnation of the Batsuit is given the most complete description ever seen in a Batman film and possibly the comic books. It was originally intended for advanced military use, but, with its $300,000 price tag, was considered to be too expensive for the United States Army and military in general. Based on an advanced infantry armor system constructed from Nomex, the first layer of protection is an undersuit with built-in temperature regulators designed to keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature in almost any condition. The second layer of protection consists of armor built over the chest, calves, thighs, arms, and back. This armor features a kevlar bi-weave that can stop slashing weapons and can also deflect any bullet short of a straight shot impact, and reinforced joints that allow maximum flexibility and mobility. The armor was then coated with a black latex material to dampen Bruce's heat signature, making him difficult to detect with night-vision equipment. Made of a graphite material, the cowl acts as a protective helmet. The cowl's Kevlar lining is supposed to be bulletproof. A manufacturing defect in the graphite used in the production of the first shipment of the cowl's components made its outer shell incapable of withstanding blunt trauma (a flaw Alfred demonstrates to Bruce Wayne using a baseball bat). Batman apparently takes on the Falcone Crime Family at the docks with the defective helmet. The second shipment was supposed to fix this problem. An advanced eavesdropping device is concealed within the cowl's right ear and enables Batman to listen in on conversations from a distance. The Batsuit is changed in the next film The Dark Knight. In this new design, the bodysuit is made of hardened kevlar plates on a titanium-dipped fiber and is broken into multiple pieces of armor over a more flexible bodysuit for greater mobility. As a trade-off, however, the flexible armor leaves Batman more vulnerable to injury from bullets or knifes in favor of increased flexibility and lighter weight. The cowl of the Batsuit, which in previous film incarnations has been attached to the shoulder and neck, is now a separate component inspired by the design of motorcycle helmets, allowing the wearer to freely swivel and move his neck without moving the rest of his upper torso as was characteristic in all the previous cinematic versions of the Batsuit. Also, a strong electric current runs through it that prevents anyone except Bruce Wayne from removing it, further protecting his identity. The bat emblem is smaller than the one in Batman Begins and it is more similar to the Batman logo used in the posters. Gliding Cape: 'Batman's cape is made of "memory cloth," also developed by Fox. It is essentially flexible in its normal state, but becomes semi-rigid in a fixed form (Batman's wings in the movie) when an electric current is passed through it from the microcircuits in his right glove. Bruce also adds metal gauntlets with scallops on the forearms, an innovation derived from his experience as a pupil of the League of Shadows. Mainly used to block against knives or other stabbing weapons, Bruce managed to surprise Ra's by breaking the blade of his ninjaken in multiple places with the gauntlets. Furthermore, when the Batsuit was changed in ''The Dark Knight, it does not have an external 'memory cloth' cape, but, rather, a concealed cape in compartments behind the shoulder blades, which eject, connecting to the suits limbs to provide a hang-glider-like functionality with a bat-motif design. '''Retractable Techtonic Plates: The iconic blades on the sides of Batman's new gauntlets are retractable and are capable of firing outwards as projectiles. Sonar Goggles: The new Batsuit is equipped with "sonar-vision", where signals emitted by mobile phones are converted into images in a similar way to sonar. In order to view the said images, white lenses fold down from Batman's cowl to cover his eyes. Aesthetically this gives Batman, for the first time in a live action film, the 'white eyed' appearance he is always depicted with in the comic-books and animated series. Utility Belt: Batman wears a specialized belt to equip his crime-fighting gear. The utility belt is a modified climbing harness, with magnetized impact-resistant pouches and canisters attached to the belt at ergonomic points for ease of reach. It carries a magnetic gas-powered grapple gun, an encrypted cell phone, Batarangs, a medical kit, smoke bombs, mini explosives, periscope, remote control for the Tumbler, mini-cam, money, and other unspecified equipment. Batman removed the belt's shoulder and chest straps because they constricted his movements. [[Batarang|'Batarang']]:' Batman uses a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon that's name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang. Although Batarangs are named after boomerangs, they are more similar to shurikens, fitting with Batman's training as a ninja. He used one to knock out a light in ''Batman Begins. In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman uses smaller and sharper Batarangs laced with sedative to pierce the necks of his opponents, and knock them out. '''Grappling Gun: Batman uses this special item to scale up or rappel down tall buildings, or swing between Gotham City skyscrapers on successive lines. Similar to a grappling hook and speargun, the line gun uses a strong clamp attached to a high-tensil wire for scaling surfaces and/or traversing gaps. It can be recovered by releasing the clamp and rewinding the cable. It was based from one that is designed as compact climbing gear for commando units. It is propelled with compressed air works with a magnetic Enterhaken. The thin climbing cable was tested on a load-carrying capacity of 350 lbs. High-Frequency Transponder: The special sonic device is an artifact Batman uses to summon bats. When it is not used, it is equipped in the left boot heel. When used at a lower frequency the sound can cause people to have incapacitating headaches. Vehicles * Tumbler ** Batpod *Batglider *The Bat Behind the scenes *In both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises' end credits, Christian Bale is only credited with playing Bruce Wayne, and not Batman. * The first costume used in Begins was similar to the all black WB Batsuits that preceded it. He was unable to turn his head throughout the entire first film and first third of the second. Bale became the first WB Batman able to fully turn his head, when he got his second costume mid-way through the sequel. External links * Category:Characters Category:Heroes Category:Males Category:Wayne Enterprises Category:Wayne Family Category:Batman Begins Characters Category:The Dark Knight Characters Category:The Dark Knight Rises Characters